


Unsaid Emily

by captainkippen



Series: prompt fills [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Best Friends, Family Drama, Regret, Running Away, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:13:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26825695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainkippen/pseuds/captainkippen
Summary: Anonymous said tocaptainkippen:Luke with the boys the the night he left home.
Series: prompt fills [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953664
Comments: 11
Kudos: 113





	Unsaid Emily

**Author's Note:**

> Do I feel good about making you guys read this one? No. But if I had to cry about Luke then so do all of you.

Neither of them remembered what started the fight. It could’ve been any number of things; that bad grade Luke got on a test, the story on the news about a famous rockstar overdosing, a simple bad day at work… It didn’t matter in the end. All that mattered was the result. There were no goodbyes, just the terrible slam of the front door and the echoes of his mother’s desperate screams ringing in his ears. 

How could Luke have known then that he would never see her again?

He went straight to the studio. They had begun renting it on the cheap a few months earlier from a guy who was willing to let them use it for practice in exchange for help with yard work on the weekends. It wasn’t a bad deal. Hell, considering how huge the place was it couldn’t have been more perfect. They had a couch now and everything. 

The burning in his lungs as he peddled did nothing to distract him from the painful lump in his throat, nor did the wind whistling past do much for the angry tears obscuring his vision. He didn’t  _ understand _ . How did it get to this point? 

“Luke?” 

The lights were on in the studio as he dumped his bike and Reggie’s concerned face peered out through the gap in the doors. 

“What are you doing here?” Luke asked, wiping hurriedly at his face.

“Uh… well, you know. My folks…”

Oh, right. Reggie’s parents had been fighting again. They always had, but in the past few months the scale of the arguments had increased to objects being thrown and windows getting broken. He’d been jumping between friends’ houses on the worst nights. 

“You okay?” Reggie pushed the door open further as his eyes fell on the bag slung across Luke’s shoulders. “What happened?”

Luke shrugged. 

“I left,” he said.

The truth was… he’d wanted to turn around the second he ran out the door. The image of his mother’s distressed face played over and over in his mind, all consuming. It had been coming for awhile now, he knew, the inevitable fight that sent it all boiling over the edge. She was convinced he was going to get himself into trouble. He was convinced he was going to be a legend. Neither could be swayed. 

How could he know their last conversation would be a screaming match? 

“I called Alex,” Reggie said, dumping a bag of sandwiches on the coffee table. “He’ll be over soon.”

He’d left Luke for ten minutes to run to the convenience store and apparently stop at the payphone down the street. In those ten minutes, Luke had second-guessed himself more than once. The studio, their escape from the world, was warm and inviting but it was also just that… an escape. It wasn’t meant to be forever, no matter how much they loved it. Sitting on the couch staring at the piles of trash and spare clothes they always left lying around he had wondered if this was what his mother was afraid of. Was she worried that he’d have no bed to sleep in? No money to buy food? Was she scared that he’d end up cold and empty in the gutter like that rockstar on the news? 

They had been spending more and more nights here, all four of them. Alex’s parents hadn’t dealt with the news that he was gay well at all, Reggie risked being caught up in a tornado of rage every time he was at home and Luke… well. Luke’s problem wasn’t a problem anymore, was it? He’d made that much clear when he packed his bag. It wasn’t meant to be forever.

When Alex arrived the first thing he did was sit down on the other side of Luke and press in close so he was wedged between the comforting weight of both of them. Luke didn’t know where Bobby was… probably at home in bed. They would have to call him in the morning. 

“How bad was it?” Alex asked.

“I can’t go back,” Luke said simply. “It’s… it was  _ bad. _ I can’t go back home.”

She was never going to forgive him. He’d said such awful things. How was she ever going to forgive him? 

“I’m sorry, dude,” said Alex.

“It’s fine,” Luke sniffed. “It’s fine, y’know? ‘Cause I’ll just… I’ll show her. We’ve got gigs and stuff coming up. Fuck, we’re playing the  _ Orpheum,  _ guys _. _ We’re _ gonna _ make it. She’ll see. When we make it, then she’ll see.”

Alex clapped him on the shoulder, nodding.

“You’re right, bro. We’re gonna make it.” 

“We  _ have  _ to make it.”

They stayed there sat pressed together on the couch until the sun rose. Alex’s head rested on Luke's shoulder, Reggie kept his legs thrown over their laps in a lazy sprawl, and they held tight to one another. They were all he had now, he knew. Sunset Curve, four misfit boys from Hollywood just trying to carve out their place in the world. He wished he could show his parents this, that he could convince them he would be alright and he wasn’t throwing away his future, that he had his band and they were in it for the long haul. They meant to stay. They would  _ always _ stay. His soulmates, his  _ brothers,  _ the people that understood him. They were everything he needed. 

He wished his mom would understand.

Looking back, there were so many things he would say to her now if only he could. Realising you were dead hurt more than actual death did, he thought. Fading out of existence for twenty-five years and coming back to find he had left nothing but pain and misery behind – it tore him apart from the inside. If he could only let her know that he was sorry, that he hadn’t meant any of the terrible things he said, that he loved her and missed her and wanted to come home…

But he couldn’t. She had buried her son. He was nothing but air.

  
  



End file.
